Dynamic slot development studio BF Games is bringing the hardworking Goblin back for another adventure, this time with season’s greetings in Cave of Xmas.

While Santa Claus makes his plans for Christmas, the Goblin is busy planning how to strike gold and if his calculations are correct, it all lies just beneath a massive hill of snow.

BF Games’ all new Buy Feature makes an appearance for the first time, allowing players to purchase free spins, rather than waiting for them to trigger. Players can enjoy 10, 15 or 20 free spins for 50x, 90x or 130x the base bet respectively.

To aid his quest in this 5×3 slot, the Goblin is equipped with Nitro, with any single, double or triple symbol added to the Nitro Counter directly above the reel it appears on. Once the counter has three symbols, the Persistent Wild feature is activated, transforming the reel and offering additional win potential.

If players trigger the Persistent Wild mode on all five reels at once, they get a Full House, which ends the feature, resets the counter to zero and gifts them a 200x multiplier.

Scatter symbols take the form of a Treasure Chest and can appear one at a time on any of the reels. Landing three, four or five scatters triggers 15, 20 or 25 free spins, respectively.

Any Nitro symbols that land on the reels during free spins are counted on the meter and when it reaches 15, players get the Grand Reward of 500x. The explode feature could also be triggered at any time, blasting wild symbols everywhere.

The game is the third title in BF Games’ popular Goblin series, with additional games to be added in the future.

Piotr Saluda, Product Owner at BF Games, said: “We couldn’t be happier to bring the Goblin back for another adventure and especially to explore how he celebrates the holiday season.

“We know players are going to love the festive theme as well as our brand-new Buy Feature, and that the title will appeal strongly to fans of the original games, Cave of Gold and Cave of Fortune, as well as newcomers to the series.”

GoodLuckMate has published a comprehensive Japanese gambling statistics and trends report on its website, revealing some interesting industry insights. The analysis was posted in October 2022 and includes a range of relevant data focused on the gambling market as well as gambling habits in Japan.

With this report, readers will get to learn more about the legality of gambling in Japan, the most popular games among Japanese players, and the demographics of gambling fans in the country. Some key figures include:

• Size of the online casino market in Japan – $6.7 billion
• Forecasted Japanese online casino market size by 2027 – $10.1 billion
• Sports betting market share – 40%
• Casinos market share – 30%
• Pachinko is the most popular game by market share
• Pachinko makes up about 4% of the country’s GDR

This report also reveals how Japanese consumers feel about online casinos and how popular they are among players of different age and sex groups. It also covers the issue of problem gambling in the country, highlighting that about 3.2 million Japanese players have a gambling addiction.

“We have launched a dedicated version of our website for our Japanese readers. We find the Japanese gambling market extremely intriguing, and that’s why we thought it was important to dive deeper into it through this report,” Nerijus Grenda, CEO of GoodLuckMate, said.

“Creating the report took a lot of research, but, in the end, it was worth it because it gives a complete picture of the Japanese gambling industry as it covers several essential aspects of it,” Grenda added.

GambleAware has published the annual statistics for the National Gambling Treatment Service (NGTS) for 2021/22. The report shows NGTS continues to be a fast and effective route for those experiencing gambling harms to improve their gambling behaviour and psychological distress.

Commissioned by GambleAware, the NGTS is a network of organisations that provide confidential treatment and support for anyone experiencing gambling-related harms in England, Scotland and Wales, including GamCare and its partner network, Gordon Moody and NHS treatment centres. It is free to access and provides telephone, online and face-to-face support for individuals and groups.

The new report shows 7072 people received treatment between April 2021 and March 2022. Most people (92%) who completed their scheduled treatment showed improvement on their Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) score, a widely used measure of harmful gambling behaviour.

Most people (86%) who completed treatment also reduced psychological distress around their gambling behaviour, measured using the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (Core-10) measure. Just under one third (30%) did not complete their treatment.

Zoë Osmond, CEO of GambleAware, said: “It is extremely encouraging to see that the National Gambling Treatment Service continues to improve the lives of those who experience gambling harms and remains a highly effective treatment option.

“It is also encouraging to see the fall in those accessing more advanced treatment balanced out with more and more people accessing the helpline and other services as a means of support. Gambling harms can affect anyone and it is important to encourage people to seek support and treatment early on.

“We remain committed to ensuring that we work closely with our partners to understand how we can further optimise uptake and retention. We also acknowledge the urgent need to raise awareness of the service and improve access to it across the diverse range of populations and people that could stand to benefit from treatment.”

Most referrals were found to be from the National Gambling Helpline (57%), with self-made referrals making up just over one quarter (26%). Half of all service users (50%) had a first appointment within five days of contacting the NGTS, and 75% within 12 days. Treatment was shown to last on average ten weeks.

The report also shed light on the evolving picture of gambling harms as a public health concern. Data revealed the most common location for gambling amongst service users was online, with use of these services noticeably higher among younger age groups. An increasing number of women were also found to be contacting the service, with the majority reaching out being “affected others”, who across both men and women represented 14% of those contacting the service.